Subject: Re: SPARSE files considered harmful - please revert
From: "Max Bowsher" <[email-masked]>
To: "Bill C. Riemers" <[email-masked]>
Cc: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 15:47:32 +0100

Bill C. Riemers wrote:
> Only executable files should be sparse files...  Under Linux, the
executable
> bit is checked by cp.  (Or at least this was true several years ago, when
I
> last looked at the code.)  Only if the file is marked as executable is it
> possibly made sparse.

I haven't looked in the code, but there is absolutely no mention of this in
the man page.

> Granted sometimes you do have a data file which can be made sparse.
> However, unless you are familiar with the code used to read the file, this
> is very dangerous.  So this should be decided on a case by case basis.

Um? By my understanding, making a file sparse can never be dangerous. It can
cause sub-optimal performance, but code reading the file doesn't have to be
aware of anything special - the OS takes care of it.

Max.

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